Imaging of the Radio Remnant of SN 1987A at 12 mm Wavelength

Abstract

Observations of the radio remnant of Supernova 1987A using the Australia Telescope Compact Array in the 12-mm band on 2003 July 31 (day 6002.7 after the explosion) give the first fully resolved radio image of the supernova remnant. The diffraction-limited image has a resolution of about 0.45 arcsec, a factor of two better than that of the 3-cm images previously obtained. There is excellent agreement between the 12-mm image and a contemporaneous super-resolved 3-cm image. Super-resolution of the 12-mm image gives a further factor of two improvement in resolution, to 0.25 arcsec, albeit with limited dynamic range. While the spatial distributions of the radio and X-ray emission are broadly similar, there are significant differences in detail with no correspondence in the regions of brightest emission. The 12-mm image is well modelled by a thick equatorial ring inclined at 43 deg to the line of sight. This, together with the common east-west asymmetry and the relatively steady increase in the radio flux density, suggests that the reverse shock is the main site for generation of the radio emission.

4 pages, 4 figs, in press, ApJ Lett

References in corpus (6)

• Evolution of the Radio Remnant of SN 1987A: 1990 -- 2001
• Monitoring the Evolution of the X-ray Remnant of SN 1987A
• A Chandra View of The Morphological And Spectral Evolution of Supernova Remnant 1987A
• Evolution and Geometry of Hot Spots in Supernova Remnant 1987A
• The Identification of Infrared Synchrotron Radiation from Cassiopeia A
• A New View of the Circumstellar Environment of SN 1987A

Cited by in corpus (22)

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• Radio emission from Supernova Remnants
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• SN 1987A After 18 Years: Mid-Infrared GEMINI and SPITZER Observations of the Remnant
• Infrared and X-Ray Evidence for Circumstellar Grain Destruction by the Blast Wave of Supernova 1987A
• Spectral and morphological analysis of the remnant of Supernova 1987A with ALMA & ATCA
• Supernova Remnant 1987A: Opening the Future by Reaching the Past
• High-resolution radio observations of SNR 1987A at high frequencies
• Fourier Modeling of the Radio Torus Surrounding Supernova 1987A
• Chandra LETG Observations of Supernova Remnant 1987A
• X-ray Evolution of SNR 1987A: The Radial Expansion
• Evolution of the Radio Remnant of Supernova 1987A: Morphological Changes from Day 7000
• Multi-dimensional simulations of the expanding supernova remnant of SN 1987A
• Evolution of the Chandra CCD Spectra of SNR 1987A: Probing the Reflected-Shock Picture
• High resolution 36 GHz imaging of the Supernova Remnant of SN1987A
• Coronal emission from the shocked circumstellar ring of SN 1987A
• The remnant of Supernova 1987A resolved at 3 mm wavelength
• The remnant of SN1987A revealed at (sub-)mm wavelengths
• First VLBI Detection of the Radio Remnant of Supernova 1987A: Evidence for Small-scale Features
• High Resolution X-ray Imaging of Supernova Remnant 1987A
• The radio remnant of Supernova 1987A at high frequencies and high resolution
• The core starbursts of the galaxy NGC 3628: Radio very long baseline interferometry and X-ray studies